With each passing day, John McCain—the self-styled maverick Senator from Arizona and presidential candidate—looks more and more pathetic, bearing less resemblance to the Maverick portrayed by Tom Cruise in the 1986 film, Top Gun, than to the used Ford Maverick that my father bought for me in 1979 (and which promptly had to have its engine rebuilt). In an apparent attempt to show off his conservative street cred, the Senator has opted to hitch his wagon and his hopes for higher office to the horse’s patoot that currently occupies the White House and, more specifically, to the steaming pile of manure—a.k.a., the war in Iraq—that the horse plans to leave behind. McCain is currently one of the staunchest supporters of the war effort and believes that the ongoing surge of troops is both prudent and effective. To illustrate this point, he recently traveled to Baghdad and took a stroll around a local market, after which he touted how “things are better.” Not surprisingly, the Iraqis who witnessed the brief Congressional visit begged to differ, as reported here by the New York Times:

McCain Wrong on Iraq Security, Merchants Say

A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions.

“What are they talking about?� Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal!�

The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees — the equivalent of an entire company — and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.

“They paralyzed the market when they came,� Mr. Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday. “This was only for the media.�

He added, “This will not change anything.�

At a news conference shortly after their outing, Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, and his three Congressional colleagues described Shorja as a safe, bustling place full of hopeful and warmly welcoming Iraqis — “like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime,� offered Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican who was a member of the delegation.

But the market that the congressmen said they saw is fundamentally different from the market Iraqis know.

Merchants and customers say that a campaign by insurgents to attack Baghdad’s markets has put many shop owners out of business and forced radical changes in the way people shop. Shorja, the city’s oldest and largest market, set in a sprawling labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways, has been bombed at least a half-dozen times since last summer.

At least 61 people were killed and many more wounded in a three-pronged attack there on Feb. 12 involving two vehicle bombs and a roadside bomb.

American and Iraqi security forces have tried to protect Shorja and other markets against car bombs by restricting vehicular traffic in some shopping areas and erecting blast walls around the markets’ perimeters. But those measures, while making the markets safer, have not made them safe.

In the latest large-scale attack on a Baghdad market, at least 60 people, most of them women and children, were killed last Thursday when a man wrapped in an explosives belt walked around such barriers into a crowded street market in the Shaab neighborhood and blew himself up. [full text]